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Thanks for the praise folks and I hope this topic doesn't come off as chest beating on my part, as that's not my intention. I just thought you'd like to see what can be made with some fairly basic materials and tools, (I love seeing things like this myself). I'd like to say I had used some very expensive equipment, but only a 40 year old broken lathe, (as a milling bed that has no motor), and a cheap and nasty Wickes pillar drill with the worst chuck I've ever come across!!. I also required some Drills, Taps, Dies, Digital Calipers, (helpful but not essential), and the materials/screws etc.

To say how long it took is hard because it takes a while to work out a design then take measurements, make a detailed working drawing and the decided what I needed and start making it. It's taken about a week of evenings from start to finish the machining.

Here's my working drawing (done in MS paint).

The rest of it is time & patience for the most part. I did try to mill the slot at first but the pillar drill & lathe bed was not up to it and in danger of breaking. The slot was also going askew. I decided just drilling down with the slot cutter would do as flow rate is not a major issue.

You can see here the "basic" milling equipment and how I "Rounded the edges" drilling holes all the way through then cutting it out with a junior hacksaw. The rest is done with a selection of metal files and elbow grease, I have the sore fingers to prove it

For clearer images the pictures are links to full page detailed ones, to keep the page load time down.

I now need to seal the inlet, outlet and base plate. Then I'll pressure test it with 2 Bar, (28PSI), air pressure with the block immersed in water for a few days to ensure no leaks before using nylon screws in the four remaining holes to mount it on the card. All the screws that hold the copper baseplate on are set, (where possible), so as to be in between the ram chips when it's on the card.

Don't know about the O/C yet, (not putting it on a £400 graphics card until I'm happy it wont leak ). O/c however was not the main reason for water-cooling the ram. I'm attempting to build a Zero fan PC so every heat producing item requires a block, HDD's, PSU, and maybe System Ram too. Even things that don't seem all that hot could be if you remove the forced airflow. If it's good ram on the card it should o/c well, considering the water temp is around 13°C presently, and hopefully around 8°C when the geo-thermal cooling tank is installed